The New York Knicks finally signed undrafted Oregon product Kenny Wooten Jr. to a two-way contract. Wooten was getting a lot of buzz in the G-League with his eye-opening dunks and blocks.
A few teams had interest in the trading for Wooten but the Knicks finally made a smart decision by locking him down. While his stats aren’t spectacular, he shows tremendous upside to help the team on the boards.
With the Knicks G-League affiliate, Westchester Knicks, Wooten has averaged 7.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in 24 minutes. However, it’s his ability to jump out of the gym and sky for blocks and rebounds that has fans in awe. But despite all of the fan love, Wooten is just trying to improve his game.
The Knicks 1st-round draft pick Rj Barrett already knew what the Knicks were getting in Wooten. When Barrett was on a recruiting trip at Oregon, Wooten was a freshman. Wooten’s jumping ability was already unreal as a freshman. They had to get ladder to remove tape from the top of background that he slapped there from jumping, according to Barrett.
“He’s a freak”, said Barrett. That’s best thing Knicks fan can hear. Having another ‘freak’ to pair with Mitchell Robinson can pay dividends for the future. However, through all of this fan love and hype, Wooten has to make it count when he gets his shot.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding this 21-year-old. Fans were ecstatic when Wooten signed his two-way contract. The only thing fans don’t want is to get their hopes up and ultimately be disappointed that he doesn’t get a chance.